Date: Saturday 18th August 2012, 5.30pmLive on ESPN
Venue: St. James' Park
Conditions: picture-perfect in the sunshine - and preserved
for posterity by some clever HD gizmo available on the official
website.

Referee:Martin
Atkinson - last spotted at SJP back in April when he presided over our 2-0
victory over Liverpool, booking Andy Carroll for trying to win a penalty
and dismissing Jose Reina for losing his rag with James Perch.

Crowd: 52,385 including 2,800 Spurs fans. That's just four
short of the highest crowd at the rebuilt all-seater ground, but 35 below
the claimed capacity for 2012/13. We attracted almost 5,500 more fans
than for the season-opening visit of Arsenal to Tyneside 12 months ago.

The fine weather resulted in a large-scale ransacking of wardrobes for
black & white tops of every design - both old and new - and an overall
effect that brought David Pleat's previous comments of being outnumbered
by Zebras.

A trio of Team GB Olympic athletes appeared on the pitch at
half time: rowers Sophie Hosking and Jess
Eddie, plus water polo player Angie Winstanley-Smith. They're
pictured here with NUFC match mascot Arran Lindsay, who took the
opportunity to try on a gold medal for size:

Amongst those present in the Directors Box was former Newcastle
academy/reserve coach Richard Money, who is now scouting on behalf of
Chris Hughton's Norwich City.

A
WAGs eye view before kickoff, confirming the return of the S****s D****t
branding

Goals

Half time: Magpies 0 Cockerels 0 54 mins A
deep centre from Danny Simpson towards the back post was
met by Kyle Walker, whose attempted clearing header dropped behind him and
nicely for the lurking Demba Ba. He took a steadying touch before
sweeping home a superb right-footed effort beyond Friedel the dropped into the
far side of net and celebrating in his trademark style on the final day of
Ramadan1-0
76 minsLennon
menaced on the left hand edge of the Newcastle box before swinging over a right
footed cross to the back post as Ben Arfa arrived to reinforce the idling
Simpson. Jermaine Defoe
reached it ahead of Santon and headed it down and goalwards from six yards via
the defender.

Tim Krul made an instinctive stop with his shins but was unable to claim
possession as the ball rebounded off him and the post to Defoe, who scrambled
the ball home via the same upright 1-1
80 mins Both Lennon and Van der Vaart made contact with Ben Arfa as he
skipped into the Gallowgate area from the United left and down he went, with
Martin Atkinson pointing to the spot amid no more than hopeful
protests.

Ben Arfa and Ba tussled for the ball, with
coach John Carver furiously indicating from the bench that the task should go to
the latter. Having grabbed the ball after tumbling over though, Ben Arfa
clung onto it and slotted his spot-kick home, with Friedel diving the wrong way.2-1

Full time:
Magpies 2 Cockerels 1

We
Said

Alan Pardew commented:

"I was stupid and I've been in to
see the linesman to apologise. There's me telling my players to behave
themselves and follow the Olympic spirit and be humble, and they did it
except for me.

"It was a stupid moment - the linesman just happened to be standing
right in front of me when I thought the ball was out, and I gave him a
little shove. I have apologised and I can't turn the clock back, so I will
have to take my punishment.

"For me, Hatem was the stand-out player today. He was taking people
on in all areas of the pitch and even got two of the Spurs players booked
early on. Hatem won and scored the penalty and you need players like this
if you are going to do well.

"It was a little white lie by me (to say HBA was unfit). I donít
tell too many, but that was one. He looked sharp in training and the only
thing we were worried about was that he hadnít had a lot of game
time. The more I looked at him, the more I thought he was ready - he
really was terrific today.

ďI thought we were really disciplined. We werenít at our best,
particularly in the first-half, and tactically it was a really tight game.
We kept our two strikers on, which was important, because one of them,
Demba Ba, has come up with a truly great goal.

ďI donít think you can under-estimate the importance of this win for
us. It was a really tight game and sometimes your character and spirit can
see you home, and I think we showed that. That can win through. We had to
match what Spurs were doing, we changed things at half-time and I thought
we just about edged it.

"The other players have been impressed by him (Anita) in
training. His first couple of touches were a little bit indifferent in the
game. He was at Ajax for so many years and to come into this
atmosphere was really difficult for him. But he grew into the match and
did one great bit of skill down the wing.

"It wasnít mixed emotions. It was a fantastic victory. What I did
was absolutely ridiculous and I apologise to my team and to the linesman.
Getting sent to the stand is something I donít want to do as Newcastle
manager.

ďI thought it was out - he was right in
front of me and I donít think I pushed him that hard, but he took a stumble
and unfortunately that was that. I went in to see him and gave him a little
cuddle. I apologised to the linesman and thatís all I can do.

ďIn terms of the team it was a great
result. It was tactically a tight game. We kept our strikers on the pitch and
luckily we did as that gave us the edge. I thought we just edged it.

ďThe crowd were brilliant and they helped
us - it was such a great atmosphere.

"I worry about losing all my
players because unfortunately weíre not Manchester United or City, weíre
always vulnerable. If you ask me if I sleep well at night. Iíd have to say not
always. Iím looking forward to September 1 because by then weíll all know
where we are.

ďIím going to put a team out I think can
win (in Greece on Thursday) and that might not be all our big hitters all
of the time."

Demba Ba:

"After games, Iíve spent a lot of time watching them over again, just to
analyse things, trying to see what I had to do to change the bad stuff.

"A lot of things were going on last season, I was playing out wide for much
of the time and while I wasnít frustrated at not scoring, I didnít get
enough of the ball - I was coming too deep and wasnít there to take the
chances.

"Hatem just picked the ball up after he
was fouled I didnít know he was going to take the penalty and, to be honest, I
thought Iíd be taking it, but this time he was faster than me to it. Iíll
take the next one we get, but Iíll have to make sure Iím a little faster on
my feet in getting to the ball!

"Fasting (during Ramadan, which
ended today) can make it difficult in terms of your energy levels, but only
if you do it without a reason. When you have a strong belief like I do, then itís
easy. I have faith and that helps me."

They
Said

Following his first competitive game as Spurs boss, Andre villas Boas said:

"It's a bitter-sweet situation: we must improve but it was a good
performance. We had the most chances and were the superior team.

ďYou just have to get the balance right in terms of what you are trying to
achieve for the team. There were only one or two changes from last season and
they did extremely well before. Iím just trying to get the team organised to
get three points in every game.

ďWe just have to strive to make sure we do
that and give our fans something to cheer about.Ē

After
taking a detour to view the Sir Bobby Robson statue (who gave him his first job
in football as a teenager back in Portugal), AvB confirmed that: "I like
it"

Whether SBR would have approved of his raggy beard and slightly crumped
training kit though is open to question.

Stats

Vurnon Anita became the 172nd player to appear for
Newcastle in the Premier League and the third full Dutch international
after Patrick Kluivert and Tim Krul.

In terms of his fellow countrymen,
winger Frans Koenan appeared during our 1980/81 Second Division
campaign, 'keeper Jon Karelse made a trio of league appearances
between 1999 and 2003 and full back Patrick van Aanholt filled in at
full back while on loan in 2009/10.

Demba Ba netted his 17th
goal for the club (all in the Premier League) and ended a personal
scoring drought that extended across 14 full games and 1,301
minutes since he fired past Aston Villa's Shay Given at the Leazes
End back in February

United recorded their first opening
day league victory since 2007/08, when Sam Allardyce began life
as our manager with a 3-1 success at Bolton. Since then we've drawn
1-1 at Manchester United, drawn 1-1 at West Brom, lost 0-3 at
Manchester United and drawn 0-0 at home to Arsenal.

Although appearing on the official match teamsheet, Shola Ameobi
wasn't able to take his place as a substitute after tweaking his thigh
in the warm-up. Romain Amalfitano replaced him on the bench, with the
following post at 17.25 on the Eurosport/Yahoo live match blog
triggering internet claims regarding Sylvain Marveaux:

"Shola Ameobi picked up an
injury in the warm-up. Sylvain Marveaux was set to be named on the
bench in his place, but Newcastle are apparently struggling to track
him down! Roman Amalfitano has been named as a substitute
instead."

Waffle

After a summer of speculation as to arrivals
and departures, Newcastle returned to competitive action with a starting XI
clad in a new home strip but comprising of familiar faces.

And with a packed SJP once again boasting the branding that was hidden for
the Olympics, Alan Pardew's side managed to maintain the feelgood factor
that has steadily spread since Manchester United were beaten here in the
first home game of 2012.

Quite how they would come to achieve that feat though was open to question
at various passages of the contest, particularly in a first half when they
failed to trouble the visitors with goal attempts worthy of the name and
survived two near-misses when Krul's woodwork was well and truly rattled.

And after taking the lead from almost their only clear-cut chance from open
play, the apparent fatigue that Newcastle began to show led to an inevitable
equaliser and raised doubts as to our ability to see out the remaining time
and claim a point - with last season's draw saviour Shola Ameobi forced to
withdraw from the bench after straining a thigh in the
warm-up.

Bar room logic had it that the unfinished transfer business at White Hart
Lane made this a good time to play Tottenham, with three of the four scorers
in our 0-5 whopping in London last February no longer at the club and
midfield duo Scott Parker (knacked) and Luka Modric(sulking) both
missing.

Against that though was the nagging doubt that our best home results against
this mob tended to come once the dark nights were here, and that on their
previous two season-opening visits messrs Sheringham and Atouba had netted
to render our 'Fortress St.James'' tag swiftly irrelevant.

And despite morale-boosting photo evidence that our doubtful quartet of Ba,
Cisse, Tiote and Cabaye had all featured in training sessions since the
Cardiff defeat, news of Fabricio Coloccini's absence through injury wasn't
well-received, given doubts over the ability of Steven Taylor to complete 90
minutes in what would be his first competitive appearance since December.

Whatever uncertainties there were over the formation and approach of Spurs
under their new boss, their ability to swarm forward with pace and purpose
when gaining possession remained, with messrs Defoe, Lennon and Bale all
presenting a threat at various times - although the latter two had a
(welcome) tendency to
drift in and out of the game.

And that fitness also manifested itself in the speed with which the visitors
closed down the opponent in possession, denying them the space and time to
do anything other than launch a hopeful forward pass or play the ball
sideways. (PFA Young Player of The Year Kyle Walker particularly impressed,
but Spurs now look to have realised what an asset he is and secured him on a
five year deal in May.)

Rather than keeping anything in reserve, Pardew chose to start with his
strongest available line-up, with James Perch appearing in central defence
and Ben Arfa out on the right initially, soon drifting towards the centre,
where he found rich pickings in the form of free kicks as Spurs retreated.

Arriving at the interval scoreless, neither manager made a change ahead of
the second half, but United re-modelled their formation to bring Gutierrez
infield and push Ba wider out on the left in the position that he often
found himself in last season following the arrival of Papiss Cisse.

Ba then added another eye-catching effort to his show reel, before the
United boss made an enforced change just before the hour mark, swapping the
touchline technical area for the directors box at the referee's request.
That was a conequence of shoving linesman Stuart Burt when he failed to spot the ball clearly
going out of play during a Spurs attack.

That left John Carver and Steve Stone in charge at pitch level, with reserve
coach and regular home game "spotter" Willie Donachie shuttling
between them and Pardew. The latter occupied a seat equipped with a TV
adjacent to Derek Llambias (no sign of Mike Ashley today) but then struggled
to get the walkie-talkie he was handed to function.

The instruction to replace the fading Cabaye with new boy Anita (runs
like a cheetah etc.) was successfully conveyed, but a Spurs equaliser
soon prompted yet more to-ing and fro-ing, with the manager by now standing
behind the seating deck and thus avoiding having to cuddle the MD when Ben
Arfa won and scored a penalty soon after.

And from that point the game was won, as Spurs proved incapable of rousing
themselves a second time and United reinvigorated themselves sufficiently to
see things through, Obertan appearing off the bench to supply some trademark
aimless forward runs (just what was required - for once) before tracking
back to cause mild confusion in his defence.

Once again, this looks like a case of who dares wins for the manager, who
gambled successfully on his selection and was rewarded by the sight of Ben
Arfa artfully winning a throw in out on the far touch line in the closing
moments, having given everything to the cause. And Steven Taylor also looked
to come through his comeback unscathed, memorably flattening himself on the
turf to nod one ball back to his 'keeper in the second half. Over the 90
minutes we showed the more desire.

While nothing ever gets decided on the opening day and the occasion
outweighed the performance (we'll play better and not win), this still feels
like a significant result - if for no other reason than we retained last
season's momentum and interludes of good fortune.......and it'll take more
than the departure of dirty 'Arry to alter my profound dislike of this lot.
Right, now where's me passport?